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The Bakken can be described as structure of shale source rock spanning roughly 200,000 square miles of North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan. It really is currently the most significant recognized source of light sweet crude in North America.
Oil and gas was uncovered here in 1951, but on account of technological constraints, it has only been until fairly recently that any significant amount of petroleum has actually been extracted.
While the full amount of petroleum within the Bakken shale may very well be several hundred billion barrels, the oil and gas is usually caught inside shale itself, and it's subsequently tough to remove.
In 2008, the USGS issued a written report that determined the entire practically recoverable oil in the Bakken at 3 to 4.3 billion barrels. This is clearly a significant amount of petroleum, yet considerably less compared to what is most likely within the shale structure itself.
More recent improvements in oil removal technology have produced impressive boosts in the volume of petroleum taken from the Bakken. The key technology, hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," has had the most important impact.
At the conclusion of 2010, the speed of oil generation from the shale structure had improved to 458,000 barrels per day, which put a significant stress on the regional infrastructure's capacity to actually deliver the oil from the region.
All these latest increases in processing have brought many specialists to summarize the very first USGS estimation of 3 - 4.3 billion barrels as far too small, and they may very well be right. Most recent estimates have come up with figures of up to Twenty four billion barrels of actually recoverable petroleum.
Obviously, the main factor to analyzing the amount of total recoverable petroleum is in identifying just what fraction is technically recoverable. Assessments of this have ranged from 1% to 50%, obviously a very wide range.
As with every topic concerned with vast amounts of capital, clashes of interest can start to play a part in these evaluations. BakkenOil.org
The actual studies produced by the USGS and the state of North Dakota ( theoretically more objective resources) in 2008 would suggest the smaller range of percentage assessments are generally more reasonable.
Obviously, the exact amount of technically recoverable petroleum depends in large part on engineering, and recent advancements in horizontal drilling and fracturing are the reason for huge increases in production.
In 2011, a senior director at Continental Resources, which is one of the main companies working in the Bakken region, suggested that it could end up being one of the largest discoveries of the last 30-40 years. He primarily based this assertion on a total recovery of 24 billion barrels, which is clearly a great deal more than the USGS and North Dakota reports.
Apart from this manager's apparent personal involvement in generating these kinds of statements, it is worthy of remembering that he's directly involved in production, and is quite possibly intimately informed about the real-world application of the technology involved. For instance, his enterprise is rolling out a technology that allows the drilling rigs themselves to transport hundreds of meters under their own energy, increasing the amount of well drilling.
Though it still remains to be seen what kind of longevity this specific formation has, and what the absolute recoverable oil is going to be, there is no question it is the most dynamic development right now under development in North America.
The Bakken is likewise accountable for incredible job growth, a not-insignificant factor in the current tough economy. In fact, North Dakota's unemployment rate is currently the best in the country, and need for employees of all types shows very little indications of letting up any time soon.
